On the Programme page we announce an Art Fund International exhibition at the Bristol Museum & Art Gallery from 6 October – 2 December called History.  More details to follow.  In the meantime, Julia Carver, the Collections Officer responsible for this area of the Fine Art Collection, has provided the following report:

“In 2010 the museum made a special new acquisition, A Ton of Tea by dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, as part of our Art Fund International project. In 2007
Bristol was awarded £1 million from the Art Fund to develop a new collection of international contemporary art. Altogether five regional art galleries, in Birmingham, Glasgow, Eastbourne and Middlesbrough as well as Bristol received the unique and prestigious award. The Art Fund invited each gallery to work in partnership with a contemporary art space, and pool together our different expertise: the museum’s partnership is with Arnolfini.

Bristol’s collection ‘Reflections and interactions’ is inspired by our international historic collections, ranging from Egyptology to the Designated Chinese glass and ceramic collections. Our aim is to acquire art which reflects on the regions represented in the museum collections from a local and contemporary perspective. So far we have acquired 24 pieces, by artists from Egypt, Iran, Morocco, Lebanon, India, Pakistan and South Korea, China, including Pakistani miniaturists Imran Qureshi and Shahzia Sikander, Egyptian video artist Hala Elkoussy and Lebanese conceptual artist Walid Raad. Watch  this space, we will be showcasing the new work in three exhibitions over the next three years”.

As a taster, the above are images of some of the works so far purchased with the Art Fund International award funding.

(Added 26 January 2012)

Following his Autumn 2011 exhibition at M Shed, the Friends of Bristol Art Gallery contributed £1,000 towards the purchase of 10 Martin Parr photographs, of which the two shown on the Acquisitions page and the two shown here are examples.

The Visual Art, Public History and Communities teams at the Museum debated long and hard over the final selection but were in agreement on a representative group of 10 works covering key moments in Parr’s career. The examples came from from his Cost of Living series of the mid 1980s, his 1992 essay on Chew Stoke, and his 1994 Prefabs, as well as the more recent works from the 2000s recording generations of one family shopping at Cribbs Causeway and the queue outside the Banksy exhibition in 2009.

The selection chosen also includes the choice voted on by visitors to the Exhibition (the Chew Stoke ‘lost ball’ photo from 1992) and the Communities choice (the St Paul’s Carnival photo from 2009), both shown on the Acquisitions page. In addition, Martin Parr himself contributed a photo of his choice, taking the total to 11.

The Museum are happy that the selection represents a fine clutch of works by the internationally renowned Magnum photographer, which will join their recent acquisition of photographs of the harbour by Jem Southam, and they hope, will pave the way for more new photography acquisitions in future.

(Added 25 January 2012)

Bristol Museums Galleries and Archives have been announced as a Major partner for Arts Council England.  This means that they are one of 16 museums nationally who will receive funding as part of the Arts Council’s Renaissance programme for regional museums.

Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery are also amongst the 16 who will together receive approximately £20 million a year in funding for the next three years (April 2012 – March 2015)

Background:

The Arts Council formally takes over full responsibility for Museums & Art Galleries from MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) on 1 April 2012, and in September 2011 they invited applications for the next Renaissance programme.

For the first time this was an open application process, but only Accredited museums with Designated Collections (Bristol has three) were eligible to apply. The closing date for applications was 2 November 2011 – 29 were received and 16 were successful. The exact amounts of each major partner’s award will be finalised as part of the negotiations of their funding agreements and published in April.

For more details, including the full list of the successful partners, see the Arts Council website at www.artscouncil.org.uk

(Added 25 January 2012)

The coach departs from Pembroke Rd at 8.30am with return estimated at 7.30pm.

Full details and a booking form were enclosed with the February Bulletin.

(Updated 16 February 2012)

Claude Gellée, also known as Lorrain, was an early landscape artist, much loved in Brittain before his paintings went out of fashion at about the time of the Pre-Raphaelites in England and the Impressionists in France.  It is only in the past half-century that he has been restored to his place as one of the greatest, most original and most romantic of landscape painters.

This London Exhibition explores the influence Claude’s mastery of light and landscape had on Turner throughout his career.  It brings together related works by both artists, including oils, watercolours and sketchbooks.

The coach departs from Pembroke Road at 8.30am with return estimated at 7.00pm.

Full details and a booking form were enclosed with the February Bulletin.

(Updated 16 February 2012)

The Great Gatehouse

The last time The Friends visited Henry VIII’s grand palace was in the late 90s.  Since then it has undergone continuous refurbishment and improved garden access, not least of which is the splendid new Tudor Court garden.

You may have to choose between the Apartments and Grand Rooms, including the Wolsey Room, the Courtyards and Cloisters, the Renaissance Picture Gallery, and 60 acres of the Palace Gardens!  Early Spring should reveal the amazing daffodils in the Wild Garden as well as other seasonal floral displays.

The coach will start from Pembroke Road at 8.30am with return estimated at 7.00pm

Full details and a booking form are with the February Bulletin.

(Updated 16 February 2012)

The Princess Royal officially opened M Shed on Wednesday, 14 December 2011.  Among the guests invited to meet her was our Chairman, Joanna Brown.   When speaking with Joanna, the Princess said she recognised the importance of Friends’ groups.

During her tour of the museum’s three galleries the Princess Royal was introduced to Princess Campbell MBE, Bristol’s first Black ward sister and local  community activist. Princess Campbell’s original nurses uniform is one of the 3,000 objects on display in M Shed.

Photo credit Bristol City Council

(Added 13 January 2012)

Travel arrangements: Depart All Saints Church,Pembroke Road,Clifton 08.30am;  Welcome and brief Introduction by Dr. Julien Parsens followed by free flow tour 11.30am;  Lunch in Museum or High Street;  Free time to browse permanent collection or visit city; Depart Exeter 16.00pm ; ETA All Saints Church 18.00pm.

The coach for this excursion filled very quickly and a second coach has been laid-on.  There are still a few seats available on the latter, so if you want to come, complete and send in your booking form to Margaret Bell as soon as possible.

*Sam Smiles is Emeritus Professor of Art History, University of Plymouth, and a Tate Research Fellow. His research is concentrated on British art, mainly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and with a particular focus on the work and legacy of JMW Turner. He devised and curated the exhibition Into the Light at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter. His next exhibition is titled ‘Flight and the Artistic Imagination’ and it opens at Compton Verney on 29 June.

(Updated 6 December 2011)

(This item added on 6 August 2011)

Leonardo, painter of the court of Milan

This is the second excursion to this exhibition, and the coach is  FULL.

(Updated 6 December 2011).